A Disney Parks Around the World Journey: The Planning Part II

Read about of the previous planning here.

Read about how the trip turned out on the semi-live blog here.

So assuming we make it to our 11:30PM flight to Shanghai, we now needed to find a flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. When booking award flights you often don’t pick the dates, the dates pick you. Searching the various awards programs turned up Cathay Pacific, which is the flag carrier for Hong Kong. Thankfully, Cathay Pacific had a large amount of business class availability so we were able to pick any date we so choose.

In order to pick a date we needed to know how many nights we would spend in Shanghai. After researching the resort, we ultimately decided that 4 nights in Shanghai would be ample. In continuing our theme of staying at the flagship or “Disneyland” hotel at every property, we chose to stay at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel for the full 4 nights we were in Shanghai. Of all the Disney Resorts, Shanghai has the least number of hotel options, only having 2 hotels on property. Thankfully, Shanghai Disneyland Hotel is priced nothing like the Grand Floridian and it was just $1528 for 4 nights or $382/night.

Several have asked about if we need a visa to China. Thankfully, given our flight path and length of time in China we qualify for the 144 hour visa free transit. This is a rule that if a person is flying to several specific regions in China, and then flies out within 144 hours to a different destination than the one they flew in from that they would not be required to have a visa. So since we were flying into Shanghai, staying about 90 hours, and then flying to Hong Kong instead of back to Paris, we qualify for a visa free transit. Had we flown right back to Paris or stayed 145 hours we would have had to apply for a visa.

The flight from Paris to Shanghai is not a short one especially now that airlines avoid Russian and Ukrainian airspace. Clocking in at 12hr 35min plus the 7 hour time difference puts us at a 7:05 PM Shanghai arrival time on December 24th. After doing 4 parks in one day, flying to Miami, flying a red eye 9 hour flight to Paris, then doing two parks in one day in 4-5 hours, and then flying 12.5 hours to Shanghai, we all decided we could really use Christmas Day as a recovery day to help us get over the jet lag.

God rested on the 7th day, so we decided we would as well. I managed to find a church with an English Catholic Mass as it Christmas Day, but aside from that we have scheduled no specific plans that day other than to relax at the resort. If we get antsy we can always check out the Bund, which is the waterfront area where you can get a panoramic view of the city.

December 26th and 27th will begin the slower and more relaxed portion of our trip after the initial break neck pace of six parks in two days. We decided on doing two park days in Shanghai as we had never been there before and would like to take our time to do all the rides and any shows and character greets we wanted. Unlike the US and Europe, Christmas is not peak season for China, so we hope that compared to the insanity of Disney World, Shanghai will be less crowded. Unlike the US parks where prebooking lightning lanes is a near must, every trip report regarding Shanghai Disneyland recommended not buying any line skipping until in the park where you can evaluate how long the lines are, as the lines are traditionally not nearly at the level that they can get to in Japan or the US Parks. Most bloggers stated it was not necessary for the majority of rides.

While Christmas is not a major holiday in China, Shanghai Disneyland does have some holiday theming and we are very excited to see that, but from our understanding it is nothing on the level of the US resorts.

We are not huge foodies, and as such have not really made any dining reservations. We may come to regret that, but food has never been a huge focus of our travels. It’s one the areas we pull the budget back on as it’s just not a priority for us. We do like to indulge in character dining or other themed dining experiences, but nothing really stood out to us for this particular resort. Anyone that truly knows me knows my main priority in any country is to get to a McDonald’s, as it is my one true food love. Sadly, Disneytown, the Shanghai Disneyland version of Downtown Disney does not have a McDonald’s.

On December 28th we will leave Shanghai and fly out via the more domestically oriented Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. I chose this airport vs the larger Shanghai Pudong airport as it is smaller in size. Also when I was searching for award availability for flights using miles, I found that Cathay Pacific had a flight available for 28,000 miles and $28 dollars in taxes per person with favorable flight times. Normal retail price for that flight would be $610 per person, so definitely not a bad use of miles. An added bonus, is that the flight is only 3 hours, and typically airlines do not use an aircraft with lie flat seats for such a short flight so this was a big bonus. I always love trying out different airlines business class products.

We are expected to arrive at 4:20PM and chose to only spend 3 nights in Hong Kong. Several blogs really only recommended one full park day, and that spending two days would be potentially excessive, but the cost difference between a one day ticket and a two day ticket was only $41 dollars! If we only walked into the park and just walked around for a short bit I feel we would get our $41 USD worth. Ultimately, if we feel that there just isn’t enough to do on the second day, our back up plan is to go to the Big Buddha which is one of the main tourist attractions in Hong Kong and also close to the resort.

Continuing the theme of flagship resorts, we chose to stay at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. I believe they were invoking the spirit of the Grand Floridian when designing this hotel.

To be totally honest, for some reason it totally reminds me of Princess Peach’s Castle from Super Mario Bros.

If I see a bunch of people looking like mushrooms hitting blocks to get coins out of them I would not be surprise. If Disney were to ever be bought out by Universal and they needed a Princess Peach themed hotel, I totally believe they could re-theme Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel with minimum effort.

So continuing on with our “Let’s knock this off the bucket list” mentality, we booked a Kingdom Club Room, a club level room, which is another thing we’ve never done before at any Disney resort. For those that do not travel to Disney often, a club level room is a room that will give you extra amenities such access to the club lounge that has free food, drinks, activities, and in this case some meet and greets. Despite trying to invoke the spirit of the Grand Floridian its price was not that bad for a club level room clocking in at $1926 for 3 nights or $642/night.

Hong Kong Disneyland contains the only restaurant we had planned to do the last time we planned this trip, the Crystal Lotus. For those on Instagram and Tik-Tok this is the ultimate in Disney Instagrammable food for they have the Disney Dim Sum here. For any Disney fan, it is hard to deny that it might just be the cutest food on any Disney resort in the world.

We also scheduled Lucy, our 9 year old daughter, for a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment here. There is a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at every Disney Park in the world, and we debated long and hard as to which one for her appointment at. We eventually chose Hong Kong’s BBB primarily because it was the most relaxed schedule we had on the whole trip along with having the mildest weather.

Lucy really wants to do Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, but she also does not want to freeze to death going around in a dress either. The three park locations with warm weather during this trip are Hong Kong, Anaheim, and Orlando. Since we will be very pressed for time in Orlando and Anaheim, that left Hong Kong as the main option by default. So we booked it on the morning of our first park day in Hong Kong. Conveniently, there are two Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique locations in Hong Kong Disneyland, and one of them is in our hotel, so we booked that location for the morning of our first park day.

We were then scheduled to leave on December 31st, New Years Eve to fly to Tokyo. The award options to get to Tokyo were a little more limited than when I searched going to Hong Kong, but not terrible. I was able to find some award availability via China Airlines connecting through Taiwan, and arriving in Tokyo in business class for only 30,000 Delta miles and $59 USD in fees per person. The flights cash value was $1541 per person so that was definitely a bargain in comparison to paying cash. This is another pretty short flight only being 4 hours direct or 1.5 hours Hong Kong to Taipei and then 3 hours Taipei to Tokyo so flying business class is a bit of overkill. I have been dying to see the China Airlines cabins though as they are some of the prettiest in the sky.

We will get to fly the 777 cabin to Narita, and the A321neo cabin to Taipei. It’s pretty rare to get a lie flat seat on a narrow body jet, so I was super excited to fly that.

This is again a bit of overkill for two short flights, but Delta Skymiles are notoriously difficult to use, so anytime I have a chance to use Delta Skymiles I’ll take it.

Onward to Tokyo!

Read more about the planning here.

Read about how the trip turned out on the semi-live blog here.

Read about the inception of the trip here.